Transference: Part 4

Kira watched the attendants handle the bodies.
“You are free to go now,” one of them came up and said to her. “The body processing is not usually something people want to watch.”
“Can you…” she gulped. “Tell me what do you do with them normally afterwards.”
The attendant hesitated.
“I am investigating all angles or this and I am comparing how we do things versus the Kasians,” Kira lied. She had felt like she was babbling maybe the woman would think that she was just nervous about seeing dead people.
“Of course…….follow me.”
Kira watched someone else approach them.
“Hi I am supposed to learn about the Transference Process. I am Liam, I am learning about Designing.”
“Of course. Do you both mind sharing the tour?”
They both shook their heads.
“Come with me then please.”
First they went and saw the Transference process. Everyone knew the basics of how it worked but watching it was another thing. The candidate was 3D scanned to create a holographic image that would be used as their Avatar. Next they were laid on a table and given strong sedatives to make them comfortable. It was the next part where Kira’s heart started pounding even though she already new what would happen. They drilled holes in the temples so that they could insert the probes and wires to find and remove the consciousness. She did not know why this was bothering her so much. She looked at to her left where Liam stood. He looked a little queasy as well which made her feel better.
“Next I will show you what we do with the bodies afterwards. Please follow me,” The attendant said.
The empty body was being wheeled out of the Transference Chamber and taken down a series of corridors deeper into the building. They followed it until they got to the next chamber.
“This is the Processing Chamber. Which basically no one ever sees unless they work in this building. Here we have bio digester tanks that we put the bodies in. The enzymes in the tanks then breaks down the organic compounds, then those compounds are processed into different parts. The main product we get at the end of the procedure is fertilizer.
“For farms? You mean fertilizer for growing food?” Liam said.
“Yes precisely.”
Kira looked at Liam. He looked mortified. She was shocked as well. They had no idea they had been eating food grown in dead people.
“Thank you very much,” she said as calmly as she could. “We can show ourselves out.”
She hadn’t realized how far they had walked into the building because getting out seemed to take forever.
“So you’re in the army,” he asked.
“Yes.”
“That must be exciting.”
“It has its moments.”
“So what were you doing here if I can ask. I would think you would be spending most of your time out on the battle lines.”
“I was, but today I was investigating two murders,” she paused. Was she allowed to tell him that? She wasn’t sure.
“Murders? Deaths?” he stumbled over the words.
“Yes. Someone used a killing gun instead of a stun gun.” She shook her head. “We don’t really know how it happened yet.”
There was silence. There wasn’t much to say.
“I am Kira by the way,” she said. “What is a Designer doing down here anyways?”
He smiled then which was odd.
“Homework,” he said and then they were at the front reception again and had to part ways.